School board votes to dump JROTC program

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/15/BAG2HMD46B1.DTL&feed=rss.news

San Francisco Chronicle

School board votes to dump JROTC program

Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 15, 2006


After 90 years in San Francisco high schools, the Junior Reserve
Officers' Training Corps must go, the San Francisco school board
decided Tuesday night.

The Board of Education voted 4-2 to eliminate the popular program,
phasing it out over two years.

Dozens of JROTC cadets at the board meeting burst into tears or
covered their faces after the votes were cast.

"We're really shocked,'' said fourth-year Cadet Eric Chu, a senior at
Lowell High School, his eyes filling with tears. "It provided me with
a place to go."

The proposal approved by the board also creates a task force to
develop alternatives to the program that will be tried out next year
at various high schools.

The board's decision was loudly applauded by opponents of the program.

Their position was summed up by a former teacher, Nancy Mancias, who
said, "We need to teach a curriculum of peace."

The board's move to dismantle the popular program was led by board
members Dan Kelly and Mark Sanchez with support from Sarah Lipson and
Eric Mar. Casting votes against it were Jill Wynns and Norman Yee.
Board member Eddie Chin was absent.

"I think people should not despair too much," Sanchez said. "I think
now the work begins -- to work within the community to develop new
programs that will fulfill the needs of our students."

About 1,600 San Francisco students participate in JROTC at seven high
schools across the district.

Opponents said the armed forces should have no place in public
schools, and the military's discriminatory stance on gays makes the
presence of JROTC unacceptable.

"We don't want the military ruining our civilian institutions," said
Sandra Schwartz of the American Friends Service Committee, an
organization actively opposing JROTC nationwide. "In a healthy
democracy ... you contain the military. You must contain the military."

Students, parents and school staff from each of the seven high
schools converged outside the school board meeting carrying signs and
waving at cars, some of which honked in support.

At least 100 cadets edged into Franklin Street waving their signs
before being pushed back to the sidewalk by their ROTC instructors.

Yet, in the end, the effort -- one of several rallies in the last
several weeks -- fell on deaf ears.

"This is where the kids feel safe, the one place they feel safe,"
Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor at Lincoln High School and a
retired Army lieutenant colonel, said earlier in the evening. "You're
going to take that away from them?"

Opponents acknowledged the program is popular and even helps some
students stay in school and out of trouble.

Yet they also said the program exists to lure students to sign up for
the armed forces.

"It's basically a branding program, or a recruiting program for the
military," Kelly said before the meeting.

The school district and the military share the $1.6 million annual
cost of the program, with the military paying $586,000, or half the
salaries of 15 instructors -- all of whom are retired military
personnel. The district pays the other half of salaries and $394,000
in benefits.

Earlier, Mayor Gavin Newsom weighed in on the debate, chastising the
board for the effort to eliminate JROTC.

"The move sends the wrong message," he said. "It's important for the
city not to be identified with disrespecting the sacrifice of men and
women in uniform."

Students in the program receive physical education or elective
credits required for graduation.

A budget analysis found that the district could hire nine teachers
with the money the district now spends on JROTC -- enough to cover
the gym and elective courses for the 1,600 students should the
program be eliminated.

But there wouldn't be money to create an alternative program serving
that many students, Wynns said.

"I think the people who want to get rid of it have a responsibility
to look at how we're going to pay for that and what we're going to do
to replace it," she added.

Newsom also said he believed the vote would push more city residents
away from the public schools.

"You think this is going to help keep families in San Francisco?" the
mayor added. "No. It's going to hurt."

On other matters, the board introduced a resolution that makes race a
factor in deciding what school a child will attend starting with the
2008-09 school year. No action was taken.

Chronicle staff writer Cecilia M. Vega contributed to this report. E-
mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.